NBA referee Joe DeRosa has been suspended without pay for one game for throwing a ball to a fan at halftime of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 18. The suspension was announced today by Ron Johnson, NBA Senior Vice President, Referee Operations.

DeRosa will miss the next game he would have been scheduled to work. The fan was not ejected from the arena as was reported previously.

horrible move by derosa...
its his job to stay calm and composed. its not like he's a newbie, he's a veteran official with years of this under his belt. he should be ashamed.
refs fail when they take things personally... it effects their judgment and can effect a game. not cool.

not odd at all. no ref should ever engage the fans. ever. i'm surprised he didn't get a lot more than that.

Agree. I thought they would suspend him the rest of the playoffs.

Like most have said refs can not let fans get to them like this. Could of lead to more trouble. Also didn't like that the ref had the fan thrown out. Don't know what he was saying but it can't be any worse then other fans saying stuff to players.

If you expect players to keep their cool with fans it has to be the same with refs.